Posts Tagged :

spread a smile

Supporting wellbeing and positive mental health

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Spread a Smile is committed to mental health support, for the families we meet through our entertainer visits, virtual sessions and family events and also for our team, through mental health first aid training and support.

12 – 18 May is Mental Health Awareness Week and we’re shining a spotlight on our work supporting the mental health of all of those we come into contact with as an organisation.

Every day, our entertainers visit children in hospitals and hospices, spreading smiles, making connections and bringing a little bit of joy and happiness during some very difficult times.

“Our entertainer visits are all about making time spent in hospital just a little bit easier. The impact of being in hospital can be huge, particularly if a child is very unwell and has been in hospital for a while, away from family and friends and everything they know and that makes them feel safe. Our entertainers focus on each child as an individual, making them feel special and giving them space and time to just have fun and be a child again. Sharing a smile or a positive experience can go a long way. Our visits are always met with such positive feedback with 100% of healthcare professionals reporting that Spread a Smile entertainer visits have a positive impact on mental health and emotional wellbeing.” (Spread a Smile Healthcare Professional Survey, April – Oct 2024)

The need for mental health support is growing: one in five children in England has a probable mental disorder (Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey, 2023). Spread a Smile currently supports children, young people and families at 39 NHS hospitals and 6 hospices. This includes The Mildred Creak Unit (MCU) at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), a small, intensive intervention unit which supports children aged 7-13 facing complex mental health challenges, including eating disorders and behavioural difficulties. The MCU offers a vital lifeline during difficult times and Spread a Smile is proud to have been supporting the Unit since July 2022 through special bespoke art initiatives and programmes.

Over the last year, Spread a Smile delivered 14 art and entertainment workshops during school holidays, working with the Unit’s Play Specialist and nursing staff to create a safe, supportive space. These workshops allow patients to reconnect with their identities, build confidence, express themselves and process emotions in different ways whilst being part of a shared experience which gives space to take pride in their accomplishments.

We also ran a six week Summer Art Programme in 2024 for children aged 10-16, during which children participated in sessions with professional artists, covering themes including Piaget clocks and Pointillism.

Spread a Smile’s sessions and support have been met with incredibly positive feedback and it’s been wonderful to see the progress made by patients. One patient, initially non-communicative, gradually engaged in activities and, after six months, was confidently chatting and leading a session, with staff describing her transformation as remarkable.

Laura Walter said, “Our work with the MCU shows the profound impact that creative, play-based interventions can have. As the numbers of children experiencing mental health difficulties grow, the work of the MCU and our support for it is more important than ever. We are proud that Spread a Smile’s interactions are making a meaningful difference for children experiencing mental health issues, providing moments of connection and expression, supporting emotional wellbeing and complementing the exceptional care from the MCU staff.”

To find out more about Spread a Smile’s work, visit spreadasmile.org

Egg-cellent Easter activities for all

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Seasonal holidays such as Christmas or Easter can often be a difficult time for families with a seriously ill child and managing illness or spending time in hospital often means that families are not able to do all the things they’d like to do. At Spread a Smile, we try and bring a little bit of fun to these times, when it’s really needed, and for Easter 2025, we organised a range of exciting activities to support children and young people in hospital and at home.

????Easter treat drop – Thanks to generous support from our friends at Hain Daniels, we delivered thousands of chocolate eggs, cuddly toys and games to all of our NHS hospital partners for staff to give out to seriously ill children on the wards.

As always, the lovely team at DPD UK supported us with the deliveries, and we’re grateful to them and everyone who donated eggs and gifts including ABC Bridging, All Aboard Charity Shops,  Alt HAN Co, ICAB, Garden House School, Hasbro, Mouse House, Rob Key and Scor.

????Easter bunny visit – The Easter bunny hopped along to join our team of entertainers on hospital visits to University College Hospital, London, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), Evelina London Children’s Hospital and St Mary’s Hospital, giving out gifts and helping to bring a little bit of Spring happiness to the wards.

????Egg-cellent virtual visits – We also organised some exciting virtual sessions for families to enjoy at home, including biscuit decorating, balloon modelling, Easter art and a new collaborative dance workshop with I Can Dance UK, for young people with additional needs.

Thank you again to everyone who has helped make all of the above possible and please do get in touch by emailing fundraising@spreadasmile.org if you’d like to support our seasonal activities in the future.

Happy 12th Birthday Spread a Smile

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On 11 April 2025, Spread a Smile celebrated 12 years since the charity was founded, with a special party for patients and families in The Lagoon at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

We were delighted to welcome our friends from Redstor who kindly supported the event, and it was such a lovely day, with music, magic, fairy fun, balloons and delicious cupcakes from the amazing Lola’s Cupcakes. There was so much fun to be had by the patients, families and staff that joined us, and it was lovely to celebrate with everyone at GOSH, where our work began 12 years ago.

In 2013, Co-Founder Josephine’s young nephew, Aaron, was receiving treatment at GOSH. After noticing that Aaron was becoming increasingly withdrawn, Josephine arranged for a magician to visit. It had the most remarkable effect: Aaron’s spirits were lifted and his treatment became more bearable.

As a result, Aaron asked if magicians could also visit friends that he’d met on the ward and Josephine promised Aaron she would find a way to make it happen. Josephine teamed up with friend and former colleague Vanessa Crocker and working closely with GOSH, they founded Spread a Smile.

Since then, the Spread a Smile has continued to work closely with the team at GOSH to spread smiles to patients across the wards, providing regular in person entertainer visits, online sessions, treat drops and much more.

We are extremely proud of our work over the past 12 years spreading smiles to thousands of seriously ill children and their families and extremely grateful to all of our supporters for helping to make it all possible.

Please email us if you or your company would like to find out more about supporting future events like this – we’d love to hear from you!

A huge thank you to Redstor and Neil, Olena, Kateryna and Philipos for supporting the party and here’s to many more years spreading joy and happiness when it’s needed most.

Spread a Smile superheroes wear running trainers

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It seems apt that the day after the TCS London Marathon is National Superheroes Day. So today on 28 April, we’re celebrating our 17 brilliant, superhero London Marathon runners for taking on this iconic event on behalf of Spread a Smile and together raising over £53,000 to support our vital work spreading smiles to seriously ill children and young people.

It really was an incredible day with an incredible atmosphere, with the largest team of runners we’ve ever seen running for Team Smile.

We joined our friends from Children with Cancer UK along the route at miles 6, 12 and 24 to make sure we showed as much support as possible to our team. After the race, we welcomed many of our runners to a post run party with Children with Cancer UK, with Spread a Smile entertainers hosting the children’s entertainment area. Fairy Jasmin was there to spread some Spread a Smile sparkle, artist Sophie delighted with her creative face painting and magicians Ian and Nick brought the magic touch to the party.

We can’t thank our runners – Andrei, Cara, Carly, Chris, Craig, Dylan, Gavin, Hazel, Jack, Joseph, Max, Myfanwy, Nat, Nick, Ollie, Richard and Will – enough for their support and commitment. Together they have raised an incredible amount which will make a huge impact to our work brining joy and laughter to seriously ill children and young people during their darkest times.

Join Team Smile in 2026!  Click here to register your interest for a Team Smile 2026 London Marathon places Or email us to find out about joining us for the London to Brighton bike ride or our Three Peaks Challenge.

Liam Conlon MP joins Spread a Smile hospital visit

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Liam Conlon, the MP for Beckenham and Penge, joined Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile CEO, on a visit to King’s College Hospital yesterday (Wednesday 23rd April), where he met some of the children and families that Spread a Smile support and saw their work first-hand.

Spread a Smile works in partnership with the Play Team at King’s College Hospital to spread smiles, bring joy, entertainment, and moments of respite. During the visit, Mr Conlon met with young patients, their families, and NHS staff, and witnessed first-hand the powerful impact of the charity’s in-hospital entertainers. On the day we were joined by Collette, a Spread a Smile singer, and Nick, a magician.

Mr Conlon’s visit was particularly poignant given his personal connection to the NHS. As a teenager, he spent several years undergoing treatment at the Royal London Hospital and Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital following a serious accident at age 13.

While it is not the hospital where Liam was treated, King’s College Hospital treats hundreds of his constituents in Beckenham and Penge every year. Mr Conlon said the experience of visiting another children’s ward was “important to him.”

He said, “Today’s visit was very special to me because it is personal. I spent years growing up on NHS children’s wards as a teenager after an accident at 13, and I owe so much to the NHS. And whilst children’s wards are in some ways a grim reality, they are also places of great hope, deep compassion, and world-class care. That is made possible by NHS staff and the people behind incredible initiatives like Spread a Smile which will make such a difference to children and their families.”

“I’m so grateful to the Spread a Smile team and the staff at King’s for the incredible work they do every single day.”

Spread a Smile currently partners with 39 NHS hospitals and six hospices across the UK, delivering in-person and virtual entertainment. Their partnership with King’s started in January 2020 and we currently make three visits a month to the hospital and have plans to increase this in the coming months.

A huge thank you to Mr Conlan for joining us on the visit and to all the team at Kings College Hospital for their support. Find out more about Spread a Smile’s work here.

Easter tea party at Corinthia London

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To kick off the Easter holidays, 18 families joined us at the beautiful Corinthia London for a delicious Easter themed afternoon tea.

Upon arrival, the families were greeted with glittery welcome drinks in Spread a Smile colours before being shown to their tables to enjoy a tasty afternoon tea with sandwiches, scones, cakes, hot chocolates and more.

In true Spread a Smile style there was entertainment from some of our magicians, singers and fairies, along with lots of Easter crafts and a scavenger hunt with the end prize of a personalised apron for each child to take home.

We are extremely grateful to our friends at Corinthia London for hosting us so beautifully and treating our guests like royalty. As one family told us,

“The afternoon tea was absolutely delicious and on another level. Thank you always so, so much for thinking of everything and being so kind to us all. We honestly had a fabulous time, and it was such a special treat to be able to take the kids (and us) to somewhere so luxurious. Thank you as always for the amazing magic, face painting and singing. Jacob and Kaitlin were in hysterics at the magician, and it was so funny to watch.” Love the Youens family.

Our family events and outings support young patients, their parents, carers and siblings and bring moments of respite, joyful experiences and enduring memories at the most challenging of times.

To find out more about our work and how you can get involved, please click here.

Meet Cara and new therapy Dog, Scout

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We’re delighted to welcome Cara and Scout to the Spread a Smile team.

Scout is a 5-year-old female cockapoo and our newest recruit to our team of therapy dogs, making regular visits to children in hospital with owner, Cara. Cara told us a little bit more about Scout and her journey to becoming a therapy dog with Spread a Smile.

“Scout is very intelligent and lots of fun, but most importantly a friendly, calm dog. I think she makes a great therapy dog as she absolutely adores people and loves getting cuddles – she can never have too many! She’d make an absolutely terrible guard dog, though. 

“I’m a children’s writer and spend a lot of time visiting schools with Scout to read my stories. Scout has also been working as a registered ‘Pets as Therapy’ dog for 3 years, going into a local primary school to read with the children. A few people mentioned to me what an asset she would be as a hospital dog, so this is something I started considering. In addition, I am a mum of three girls, including one who was sadly stillborn, I feel a real affinity with parents who are going through very difficult times. When I read about Spread a Smile in a magazine, I realised it would be the perfect organisation for us to get involved with.”

“To become a therapy dog, Scout was assessed by Pets as Therapy in 2022 and she passed with flying colours. Since joining the Spread a Smile team, we’ve been in to visit children and young people in hospital, and it’s been a great first introduction to the charity and the important work they do. We met some children in the playroom first, and then went to individual beds on the ward. The children and their parents were really happy to see Scout and she brought a lot of smiles to their faces.

“Even though it was a very different to her usual surroundings, Scout was perfectly comfortable in hospital and took all the strange equipment, busy corridors and noises in her stride. It was lovely seeing the children visibly relax in her presence and enjoy a moment of calm between medical procedures. I think Scout is always so insistent on attention and love, that she brings people out of their present worries and gives them something else to focus on, even just for a short time. She particularly loved having her fur brushed.

“Just like on my school visits, we always take time to introduce ourselves and take things very gently. Scout seems to know which side of her personality to bring out depending on the child – so sometimes she gives excited with tail-waggy greetings, and at other times she simply curls up for a quiet pat. When encouraged, Scout loves showing off a few of her tricks (only ‘sit’, ‘paw’ and ‘lie down’ – but she performs them very diligently!) and being given her favourite treat – cubes of mature cheddar cheese – as a reward.

“I have been able to bring copies of my rhyming picture book, Finding Floss, along with me on hospital visits and hand them out to children, along with stickers. This ties in perfectly with Scout’s visits, as the book is about a loveable cockapoo. Storytelling is something I have always been passionate about and most of my stories contain a huge dollop of silliness and absurdity – I love seeing children get the giggles, especially when they’ve been feeling sad or worried. Sometimes laughter really is the best medicine. 

“I am hoping to do some book readings and story sessions with Spread a Smile in the future. I have more books due to come out – more silly animal capers – so would love to read these too. 

“I’d heard about therapy dogs in hospitals, but hadn’t, until recently, heard of Spread a Smile. What is immediately impressive, is the sheer amount of hard work and organisation that goes in to coordinating the visits, and the amount of people that help to make it happen. I have also enjoyed meeting other Spread a Smile entertainers on my visits – from magicians, to singers, to balloon artists. They are all so talented and I’ve loved seeing children, from tiny babies to teenagers, light up in their presence. Both Scout and I are really looking forward to what lies ahead on our journey with Spread a Smile.”

Please donate to help ensure we can continue to fund our therapy dog visits for children and young people in hospital. Thank you.

Micro Scooters make a ‘wheely’ big difference

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“The Micro Scooter gives my daughter a sense of ownership, independence and mobility. My child received a gift of a kidney from her mother in March 2023. In just 7 days she got moving around the ward and first thing she called out for was to bring her pink Micro Scooter from home, which she used to get around the ward.” Parent

Since 2021, Micro Scooters has generously been supporting Spread a Smile, donating an amazing 166 micro scooters, helmets and scooting accessories to support seriously ill children and their families.

Hospitalisation can be a very scary experience for children, often causing significant anxiety and distress. Play is an essential part of childhood and is at the very heart of mental, social and emotional growth and wellbeing. Prolonged and repeated hospitalisation, time at home or endless days feeling unwell significantly reduces opportunities for play, socialisation and physical movement.

Laura Walter, Spread a Smile Director of Services continued saying, “Physical activity is important for everyone, including children who are in hospital. Some patients can be in hospital for a long time, so it is important that they stay as active as possible during their stay. Scooting is a fantastic way to encourage them to take part in exercise that is fun, when they feel able to.”

The scooters have been used to help children get from one area of the hospital to another for treatment and also to support children’s rehabilitation by promoting physical activity and improving motor skills

One parent told us, “The scooter makes a huge difference to our son. He has a chronic lung condition, which means he struggles to walk any distance. He has a wheelchair which he can use, but he doesn’t like to be so different from his friends and other kids. When we travel into London for hospital appointments, we use a scooter as a much easier way for him to travel without exerting himself. The scooter is also easier for me to lift on and off the train. It makes a huge difference to his life and disability.”

We are so grateful for the fantastic support from Micro Scooters and are looking forward to continuing to work in partnership with them to spread even more smiles to even more children.

Partnerships such as this play a vital role in ensuring we can continue to be there for seriously ill children and their families when they need us most. Please do reach out with our Partnerships Manager, Lucy Keith by emailing lucykeith@spreadasmile.org to find out more about exciting partnership opportunities with Spread a Smile.

Queen’s Hospital partners with Spread a Smile

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Spread a Smile has announced a new partnership, with Queen’s Hospital in Romford, part of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. The charity will support children and young people receiving treatment at the hospital and they, along with their families, are invited to join the Spread a Smile family and benefit from its services.

Spread a Smile’s mission is to bring joy and laughter to as many seriously ill children as possible in NHS hospitals, clinical settings, hospices and homes across the UK. Queen’s Hospital joins 37 other major and speciality NHS hospitals, and six hospice partners already supported by the charity, taking Spread a Smile one step closer to its aim of spreading smiles to every seriously ill child and young person across the country.

The Spread a Smile team of talented entertainers, including musicians, artists, magicians and therapy dogs, will spend quality time with patients through regular in-person visits to the hospital. In addition, patients and their families will be able to access a range of its support services including virtual sessions, outings and events. All of which supports the charity’s aim of reaching and supporting as many young people as possible, spreading smiles and a lot of happiness to children undergoing treatment for serious illnesses and their families.

Caroline Jenkins, Health Play Specialist at Queen’s Hospital, said: “Having Spread a Smile visit us has really made such a difference to the children and young people at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, we are a busy district general hospital covering three very diverse areas. Spread a Smile’s visits are impactful brightening everyone’s day from the children and young people, their parents & carers and all the staff, the visits lift everyone’s mood. Thank you for all you do and we look forward to continuing to work with you helping you make an even greater impact in the future.”

Lucy Jackson, Spread a Smile Chief Executive added, “Spread a Smile’s aim is to bring joy and happiness into the lives of as many seriously ill children, young people and their families across the country as possible. We are delighted to be working in partnership with the brilliant team at Queen’s Hospital to deliver entertainment, laughter and bring the Spread a Smile magic to patients, families and staff alike.”

To find out more about what we do and how we support our hospital and hospice partners, click here.

February 2025 newsletter

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Our February supporter newsletter is here!

Take a look for all the latest from Spread a Smile including…

  • News on our two latest hospital partners
  • The latest on our family events and half-term activities
  • Kian’s story for International Epilepsy Day
  • Launch of our two 2025 Padel Tournaments
  • An update on our Real Estate Committee
  • More on the London to Brighton bike ride in July
  • Freddie and Richard’s story, from support to fundraising

We hope you enjoy reading our latest newsletter and if you’re not already receiving it, you can sign up here.